Windows is adware. A couple weeks ago I recently wrote a rant about the reasons I no longer use Windows on any of my machines [1], but I recently installed Wind

Windows is adware. A couple weeks ago I recently wrote a rant about the reasons I no longer use Windows on any of my machines [1], but I recently installed Windows 10 on bare metal because I have a work project coming up that likely requires me to use Windows. One of the first new obnoxious things I noticed was that search box in the taskbar had a bright and colorful gift icon inside it. Clicking on that icon brings up links to holiday-themed advertisements like "Top 10 Tech Gifts This Holiday Season". Mind you, I provided zero information to Microsoft and had yet to even open a web browser. I also made certain my internet was disconnected prior to the installation setup to avoid being strong armed into creating a Microsoft account, and disabled as much telemetry as they allow beforehand. This was not a dev or beta release, this was the latest version of the Windows 10 ISO from Microsoft's website. It's not just sad, but it gives me a gross feeling. [1] https://chuck.is/windows https://chuck.is/windows